Craft Your Life and Make It Good

Books

March 25, 2012

Sorry for the delay in posting a winner. A family member has been ill and modern medicine has been (thankfully) intervening in our day-to-day lives for the past few weeks. As my brother says, "Better living through chemicals!" Of course, we'd rather we didn't need the pills and shots, but are thankful they are available when we do need them.

Thank you to each of you for your comments! A random number widget picked #3.Holli, I will be in touch :)

The rest of you: It looks like Crispina ffrench may still have her contest open. I couldn't find a deadline on her post and it is entirely possible I overlooked it, but... Her blog's cool anyway, check it out here! Best wishes to you all.

Also, I strongly encourage you to suggest this book to your local public library. I know our library sincerely wants to know what its patrons are interested in and what they want to see on the shelves. Ours even has a link right on the home page of their website for "Suggest a Purchase" and they will notify you if they add your recommendation to their catalog, and even reserve it for you so you get to read it first!

March 12, 2012

This book is packed with information about keeping favorite items in your wardrobe even after you may feel they have seen better days. For some of the projects, you even get the feeling that the "better days" are still ahead, because the mending adds so much character. Kristin doesn't try to tell you that you can fix a moth hole in your sweater with no one the wiser. She shows you how to do it in a way to make yourself happy, and then you can celebrate the change as a small victory. The book is full of suggestions to make your mending feel like a happy accomplishment.

In the spirit of Kristin's site, Craft Leftovers, my project is more of a reuse/recycle/upcycle kind of item. It's an old bridesmaid's dress that I cut down to be a princess dress for my daughter. I took in some seams, stitched on a ruffle, added elastic, glued on some ribbons and... ta-da!

Though I refashioned this dress way back in September, 2010, it still sees a lot of use by my girls, and I'm proud to say it has held up well and is a favorite of theirs.

Storey Publishing sent me a copy of Mend It Better for myself, but also said they'd send one free copy of the book to one of my US readers, so if you'd like a chance to win and you live in the states, please leave a comment telling me what kind of mending will be in your future! (Deadline to comment is 3/19/12.)

January 11, 2012

I sewed a tote bag awhile back as a gift for my goddaughter. Not sure if I shared it here, so at the risk of repeating myself...

But firstly, I'd like to note that this is not a tutorial. This is just a show and tell. If you want to have some good step-by-steps, take a gander at this lovely lesson, or click to this one with french seams.

For mine I took a pair of old blue jeans from my scraps pile. These jeans had seen better days. They were patched already by the time they were handed down to one of my kids from an older, cooler cousin. (Thank goodness mending is still cool in some circles. Yes, it is. Really. There's even a book* coming out about it.) Then my son wore the heck out of them. It may have been too bad for my son's wardrobe, but I was not willing to mend them any more. Upcycling was more appealing to me at that point.

Because this bag was going to be the wrapping for a few books I was gifting, I used the books to determine the size. As you can see, the flap came from a back pocket.

To get the length of the strap, I measured a kid I had handy. The red webbing came from the "crafty stuff" table at a rummage sale.

The lining used to be a set of cafe-style curtains. I bought them at my neighbor's yard sale for something like 25 cents. Seriously. It's a rather busy print, but as a lining I thought it would be fun.

The outside needed a little something to pretty it up, so I found a flowery button in my stash to do the trick. The loop is made from a hair elastic sewn between the layers.

This was a really fun project. Because the materials for the bag were nearly free, I could spend more on the books that went inside**. And in a way those jeans are still being worn.

April 14, 2011

It is spring in Wyoming. The robins have returned, and under the occasional dusting of snow the grass is turning green again.

We've been busy around here celebrating birthdays and observing Lent and getting ready to clean the house in preparation of Easter.

One thing about spring - it is still cold in the mornings. And partly because the outdoor wall in our kitchen is made of cinderblock, the cupboards and countertops are cold much of the time. Having a cozy for our french press is almost a necessity, but the bound rectangle of pre-quilted fabric I had safety-pinned around the glass carafe was getting old and I was tired of looking at it. Besides, it was ugly and didn't match my new kitchen. So in a fit of inspiration, I cut part of a sleeve from a felted wool sweater, and opened the center of the seam for the handle. It isn't beautiful, but it was super quick and does the job admirably. The cozy on the mug is simply a rectangle of treble crochet rows in cotton, and it stretches just enough to fit. I didn't bother with trying to make it match anything because it was just a prototype.

I really couldn't believe it when I saw Coffee Cozies in the new books at our public library. (I see there's also one for tea pots.) Then I saw Pretty Little Cozies at a quilt shop. Check them out if you want to get serious, but for me the quick sweater fix was the way to go.